Dreger on "implied" availability of Leafs' Gardiner

Darren Dreger was on Toronto’s TSN 1050 on Tuesday morning.

On how often Jake Gardiner’s name is being bandied about right now:

“Well, mostly by media a lot obviously. It’s always been out there, but I think that again, every time we talk about a name player, and I think it’s fair to call Jake Gardiner that, you have to qualify it. Do I think that Dave Nonis is calling managers to say, ‘Hey, what are you going to give me for Gardiner?’ No. But I think that it’s implied around the league that Jake Gardiner is available.”

What would he be worth right now?

“Yeah, well that’s the question. Is his contract a help or a hindrance? Five-year contract, $4 million per. Provided he continues to develop, and I still think Jake Gardiner is going to be a good young defenceman – or a good defenceman. So that contract isn’t going to be a hindrance. It could be a help. I think that there are teams around the National Hockey League that would see that as well. But in the moment he’s not playing very well, so he’s going to have to improve his level of play. But so are those around him to help him out. And if that happens, then his return is going to go up.

“I just look around that blueline. I look around that team. I see all the areas that Nonis is going to have to touch from a contract standpoint – from Nazem Kadri as a restricted to Cody Franson as an unrestricted – how do you sign all of those guys? How do you sign them all? Somebody is going to have to move.”

Source: TSN 1050/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey